The Ufa (Universum Film AG) was a German movie and TV company, founded in December 1917. It was founded by several companies, with the German goverment secretly involved; and its initial goal was to produce pro-German propaganda movies that would be shown outside of Germany.
After the end of WWI, however, the focus shifted on producing movies for Germany for commercial profit.
In 1927, Ufa had financial difficulties and was facing bankruptcy, the company was bough by right-wing media mogul Alfred Hugenberg, who continued production as normal, but also Newsreels of the Ufa to advertise his own party and later the Nazi party.
After the Nazis rose to power, Ufa, like all other movie companies, came under strict goverment control, and in March 1937, Hugenberg had to sell the majority of his stakes in Ufa to a goverment-controlled company; the Ufa thus came under direct goverment control.
The Ufa Week was produced from September 1925 onwards, initially as silent newsreel, from September 1930 onwards with sound, hence the name was changed to "Ufa Sound Week".
Like all newsreels in Nazi Germany, it was not a neutral news source, but rather full of Nazi propaganda. After the outbreak of WWII, the content that all newsreels produced was unified, and in mid-1940, all newsreels were unified to "The German Newsweek."
This here is Ufa Sound Week No. 470, released only a few days after the start of WWII in Europe and is one of the first wartime newsreels.
It shows scenes from Danzig and tells the Nazi propaganda lie that Poland allegedly wanted to conquer Danzig and that the Germans had to defend it.
Also shows scenes of alleged bombing of German villages by Polish planes, and footage of various combat events within Danzig, such as the Battle for the Polish Post Office and the Shelling of the Westerplatte.
Further scenes shown are war preparations within Germany, such as air raid preparations and armament production, and footage of German troops advancing in Poland and German planes bombing Polish positions.
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Subtitles made by me.
